California Dinner (Celebrating Cheese)

It always takes me forever to post our own dinner party, especially if we lost the wine competition... which we did :(  But it was still a blast! Joe and I had been gone for a month down in Puerto Escondido (check out my travel blog: http://dashingboldadventure.blogspot.com/), and our dinner was scheduled for the Friday after we got home. Less than a week! So that's my excuse for making my fall-back spaghetti. I called for Zinfandel.

Snacks:
Cheese Drizzled with Olive Oil
Black Finger-Olives
Crunchy Parmesan Wafers
Marcona Almonds & Dates

First Course:
Caprese Salad

Main Course:
Roasted Carrots,
Spaghetti with Spicy Meatballs,
Olive Cheese Bread

Dessert:
New York Style Cheesecake with Kona/Caramel Sauce and Berries

Wine competition:
Wades 1st place with Opolo, Mountain Zin, 2014 (Paso Robles)
Gilberts 2nd with Dobra Zemla, Zin, 2014 (Amador)
Shetlers 3rd with the prettiest bottle of Poizin, Zin 2013 (Sonoma)

Texas BBQ at the Wade's

My mouth was watering in anticipation of this one, and I wasn't disappointed. But first we had to be properly welcomed to the Wade Family Ranch by their 4 year old granddaughter, Mina. She had us sign in on her Frozen magnetic drawing board, then she escorted us outside to the "dining area."

They had called for a Red Wine Blend so I dragged one from the cellar from the cabin :)

Rustic Cheese Board with Assorted Crackers
Texas Sweet Tea (This was a cool idea of putting the tea in mason jars with the lids on, in a bucket of ice... clever)

DWs Texas Smoked Brisket

Mom's Potato Salad

Southern Coleslaw with Granny Smith Apples

Mom's Best Baked Beans

Sweet Corn Bread

Sloughhouse Corn-on-the-Cob

Ol' Fashioned Peach Cobbler A La Mode with Haagen Daz Vanilla Ice Cream

The Shetler's won with a bottle of One Armed Man  The Wades came in second with their favorite wine, Stephanie. We trailed in last with Hatcher Meritage. That tells you how good the wine was if a Hatcher came in last!

Gilbert's house for Cuban food

First let me say I'm sorry for getting so behind on blogging! Just so you know we never got behind on feasting, just on telling you about it :) The Wade's were scheduled after ours, but life got in the way, so we met downtown and did a pub crawl. It was more befitting our mood at the time :)

With the help from a Cuban friend from work I attempted a traditional Christmas meal (from before communism forbade the celebration of Christmas).

APERITIVOS

Pasta de Guayaba con Queso y Galletas
(Guayaba is a fruit made into a paste with cheese on crackers. I chose jack cheese after some research)

Platanos Maduros
(These are overly ripe/black plantain bananas fried to golden crisp. They are sweet)

Tostones y Mojo
(Yum... mojo! Mojo is very special to Cubans and many other Latin/Caribbean countries. It is made with a lot of garlic, olive oil, spices, and sour orange juice. If you can't hunt down the sour oranges, use equal parts lime and orange. Tostones are green or yellow plantains that are smashed and fried and smashed some more.)

PLATO PRINCIPAL

Platanos Hervidos
(boiled green regular bananas with butter. Tastes a little like sweet potatoes)
Moros y Cristianos
(Rice and black beans, or Moors and Christians)
Pierna Asada a la Cubana con Mojo Salsa
(This is basically baked pork butt with mojo ingredients and orange halves in the pan with a little bowl of mojo to dunk the meat in.)

POSTRE

Tarte de Limón (from Whole Foods)

WINE

We requested them to bring a bottle of red wine that would pair well with Cuban food. The wines were very different from each other... which was a problem. We tend to vote for the wine which best suits our palate, nt the best of a particular varietal. The grenache imported from France won the night.

Dinner at the Shetler's

This time we experienced "Food on a Stick". Mark got a new barbecue for his birthday, so of course the men had to inspect it.

We started with assorted cheeses: Fontina, smoked chili Cheddar and Havarti on pretzel sticks.

Assorted Italian meats wrapped with creamy cheese around bread-sticks.

Greek Sticks: Kalamata olives, Jerusalem feta & marinated mushrooms.

Spinach and lobster ravioli on a stick.

Grilled shrimp on a skewer.

Meatballs on a stick.

Seasoned corn on a stick.

Grilled veggies & potatoes on skewers.

Sundried tomato chicken sausage & Andouille chicken sausage corn dogs with dipping sauces.

Frozen yogurt-covered blueberries on a stick.

Apple slice on a stick with salted caramel dipping sauce.

Cheesecake with chocolate ganache on a stick.

The numbers represent the carafes not the winning order

They asked us to bring a Tempranillo which turned out to be a difficult wine for the huge variety of flavors we experienced. Of course the Shetlers won with their 2011 Hatcher Tempranillo out of Calavaras County. The Wades came in second with a 2005 Prado Enea Muga Rioja from Spain. We came in dead last (not bitter am I?) with a 2003 Parador from Napa.